Question: let’s say, hypothetically, you want to pitch your game to a publisher. Is it smart to post wip’s of your game before that (and gather a following) or to keep it secret so they can announce it and have something special? What do publishers want these days? 🤔
That might be helpful bsky.app/profile/indi...
I think if you have a following then you’re going to be in a better negotiating position. also never heard of/was part of any project were having attention prior to signing was seen as negative by the publisher
So I don't have a steampage+following myself yet and I mostly did that because some publishers like to use the steam page launch as a marketing beat. Every time I explain this to publishers, they're like "oh, good point", so I don't think it harms you? But ymmv!
I can't give you any advice because I had the very same thoughts. But I ended up revealing because if I didn't, and publishers showed interest, they would likely stall and then ghost anyway, costing me months which could have been spent gathering wishlists.
Rita from @cr-games.bsky.social has something to say too: www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5ji...
@jtoresson.bsky.social I know you've written a lot on the subject?
I did get the vibe from one publisher that it wasn't optimal, but not necessarily a big problem.
better to pitch privately- an announcement could be better and bigger if there's a publisher on board. it'll be timed to maximise interest at launch, etc... you can always announce after a first round of talks if you change your mind!
I think it really all depends on the game. If it really is just a game where you take care of mice on a farm, then they probably don't care if word is already out there. Now if it's a game where you do shit with mice that has never before been imagined in games. Yeah, shut up.
The Mousemancer, coming August 26th 2026!